Day Nine-fifty-seven: boxing day

We've had a little project going on in the background behind the tables, lights, etc. We even teased it a couple weeks back. As the magicians say, "Here is the big reveal."

In our overhaul of studio two (e.g. new overhead light) we revamped the desk/chair setup by repainting an old table. Good for us, but that meant there was no longer any convenient storage attached to the desk. You know us well enough by now that when faced with such a dilemma our choices are to build or convert something to fit the bill. In this case we needed to build something custom to fit the space. Here are the specs to fit under the desk. The basics are that it needed to be 15.5 x 15.5 x 25 inches.

We decided to make the top and bottom a single piece each cut from an old .75-inch piece of plywood that we had previously intended to be the top of a dresser, hence the stain.

A little measuring and cutting on the table saw and we had our start.

We had to pick up some pine boards from Home Depot to make the sides and middle shelf.

sides:

sides cut to the right 7.25-inch width:

We planned to notch these side pieces to hold the shelf, so we cut the shelf about 14.5 inches wide. 

Because the base and top are 15.5 inches square, that meant we had to carve about .25 inches out of the boards at the right height, which in our case was the 14-inch mark. We could have used the router but since this was going to be quick we just set the table saw at .25 inches and used it to cut the channel. We used this technique when we made the laundry hamper and it worked well then.

Next everything needed to be painted and the insides got a coating of sealer (to protect the paint) because we figured it would be easier to do that in this state than when it was all assembled. Here are all the pieces. The squares are the top and bottom, the small pieces are the shelves, and the four together are the sides.

Speaking of assembly, we reached into our bag o'clamps and secure everything because we decided to hold this all together with our favorite hidden fasteners: glue and dowels.

Once that all dried we had something that was starting to resemble our design. All it needed was to finish painting/sealing the outside and to add a back and feet.

Presto.

And here's the whole effect. If we didn't know better we'd swear that these were part of a set.